The latest trading session saw Alaska Air Group (ALK) ending at $67.60, denoting a +0.19% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.1%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.91%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.35%.
Heading into today, shares of the airline had gained 26.25% over the past month, outpacing the Transportation sector's loss of 6.52% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.22% in that time.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Alaska Air Group in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.45, indicating a 50% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $3.49 billion, showing a 36.57% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.35 per share and revenue of $11.8 billion, which would represent changes of -3.97% and +13.17%, respectively, from the prior year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Alaska Air Group. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 2.78% higher. Right now, Alaska Air Group possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
From a valuation perspective, Alaska Air Group is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.52. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.28, so one might conclude that Alaska Air Group is trading at a premium comparatively.
We can additionally observe that ALK currently boasts a PEG ratio of 0.91. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Transportation - Airline industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1 as of yesterday's close.
The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 29, this industry ranks in the top 12% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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